She jerked up her chin. “You would see it that way. You are besotted with her. I agree that she is lovely to look at, but really, Nelson—”
“Enough, Mother!” He pounded his fist on the desk. Would nothing break the hard shell of her? “I’ve asked her to marry me.”
“You what?”
“You heard me. I’ve asked Sylvia to marry me.”
She stared at him. Obviously shocked. Then her knees buckled and she started to drop to the floor.
“Mother!” He ran forward and caught her. He needed to invest in smelling salts with how often women fainted around here. He lowered her to the hardwood floor. “Sylvia! Bring me a pillow or a blanket!”
Sylvia came running in with the folded blanket from the exam-room cupboard. “What happened?”
He tucked the blanket under his mother’s head and pressed the back of his hand to her cheek, then sat back on his heels. “I told her how I felt about you.”
He glanced up at Sylvia. “She took it well.”
His mother moaned.
“Just lie still, Mother. You are very pale.”
Her eyes fluttered open. She focused on him first and then her gaze wandered to Sylvia. “I’ll be all right in a moment.”
He forced her to wait five minutes and then he escorted her up to her room. He removed her shoes and tucked her under the covers. As he was turning to leave, she grasped his hand.
“Nelson. Are you serious? What will our neighbors say when you return to Boston?”
“Boston?” He couldn’t have been more surprised. “Is that what you hoped for by coming here? That you could talk me into going back with you?”
“I want you there with me. We’ve been apart for so much of our lives.”
“There is nothing for me there. You made sure of that. I don’t intend to go back.”
Tears filled her eyes, surprising him further. He didn’t know what to make of them. Were they for him? Or, more likely, were they because he would not agree to her plans?
“This Miss Marks has changed you.”
“Yes. She has. She is a good woman, a good person, and she makes me very happy. I plan to marry her if she will have me.”
His mother turned her head away from him and closed her eyes.
Chapter Twenty-Two
“I saw Wyatt and Rhett walk by, Ma. Can I go ask them if they can play now?”
Tommy was tired of sitting at the table. He’d been fidgety for the past twenty minutes while Sylvia cleaned up the kitchen from the meal.
“Go ahead. But make sure if they have chores to do that you either help them or you come back here so they can get them done.”
Tommy jumped from his chair, grabbed his crutches and swung himself down the hall and out the door. He left the door wide-open. That boy! Guess she should be grateful that he’d found friends. She strode down the hall and closed it softly so as not to bother the men in the meeting with Nelson.
Mayor Melbourne, Teddy White and a few other townspeople had arrived to discuss the families that had been displaced by the flooding. She wished she could hear what they were saying, but she was confident that Nelson would tell her all about it later.
She still felt butterflies dancing inside from his kisses in the livery stable. The things he’d said had caused a glow, making her happy and nervous at the same time. She thought she might walk right off into the air. She wanted so much to believe them. She just wasn’t sure that she could live up to his expectations.
A bowl of chicken and dumplings remained heating on the stove. Nelson had a regular order with Rollie and Sadie at the restaurant for lunch to be brought to him three days a week. Sadie had increased the portions to allow for his extra company. That last bowlful belonged to his mother who remained upstairs.
Mrs. Graham could have come down to get it for herself, but then, the woman was used to having someone wait on her. Sylvia had planned to spend the afternoon in her room, sewing on her new material. If she worked hard on it, she should have her dress made by tomorrow, and then she could clean and take Miss Simcock’s dress back to her.
It would be rude to ignore the woman when she was ailing. Sylvia had a strong feeling that the reason she was ailing was her.
“Oh, bother!” She fixed up a tray with the food and a glass of water and carried it up the stairs.
“Mrs. Graham?” She knocked softly on the door. “I’ve brought your noon meal.”
The woman didn’t answer. Was she asleep?
“I’m coming in.” She hated to barge in, but someone should check on the woman.
The room was darkened with the shades drawn. Mrs. Graham was awake, sitting in bed and watching as Sylvia stepped into the room and put the tray on the bedside table.
“Are you feeling better, ma’am?”
She didn’t answer.
“Your son is in a meeting downstairs with a few of the town founders. They’re trying to figure a way to help get the families, like me, back to their land. I thought you’d like to know that.”
Still no answer.
“Well. Let me know if I can get you anything. I’ll leave you alone now.”
“Close the door and come back here, Miss Marks. Sit down.”
Sylvia hesitated with her hand on the glass doorknob. A conversation with this woman did not sound pleasant. Not after the things she’d said yesterday.
“I promise not to bite.”
Sylvia turned to face her, her hands behind her on the knob.
“My son believes that I should speak with you. That my information is somehow skewed due to my sources.”
Sylvia stepped toward the bed—one step. “Doc Graham is a smart man.”
Mrs. Graham pointed to the one chair in her room—a straight-backed chair with fancy scrollwork and a cane seat. “Please.”
Sylvia wouldn’t be cowed so easily as she was yesterday. Nelson had pledged his love to her. She was strong to begin with, had raised Tommy on her own and carved out a life for the two of them. The love of a good man only strengthened her further. She walked over to the chair and sat down.
“What do you want to know?”
“Tell me about yourself. Where you come from. Whatever you wish me to know.”
She was a stranger, and Sylvia wasn’t used to just blurting things out to strangers, but the woman was also Nelson’s mother. “Only if you do the same with me.”
That startled the woman. “What exactly do you mean?”
“For every question I answer about myself, you have to do the same. Answer one of mine.”
The first hint of softening played about Mrs. Graham’s eyes. “I suppose that is appropriate.”
“Then we understand each other.”
“I believe we do.” She smoothed the covers over her lap. “I’ll go first. I would like to know the circumstances of your son’s birth. I’ve been led to believe, by Nelson, that the version I received from Carl Caulder is incorrect.”
“We’ll get to that eventually.”
For the next two hours, they talked. Sylvia was cautious with her answers at first and likewise Mrs. Graham was the same. Sylvia talked about her home in Virginia in the hills, about the small coal-mining town and her mother and father and the things she did for fun. Mrs. Graham talked about her upbringing on Cape Cod and the clambakes and parties she attended. Then Sylvia told her about the Caulder family and particularly Thomas and Carl, the wedding that wasn’t really a wedding in some people’s eyes and the journey to Kansas.
“I was sixteen and full of a love so big that it couldn’t be contained. Back then, I never doubted that things worked out in the end, that a ring given in a meadow on bended knee and words in front of my family were as binding as vows said before a preacher and that nothing would keep Thomas from marrying me proper-like as soon as we got more settled. But then he left
for Texas and that cattle drive and he never came back.”
Mrs. Graham listened. When Sylvia got to the part about learning of Thomas’s death on the cattle trail and then Tommy’s birth, Mrs. Graham grew very silent.
“How did you survive?” she finally asked. “Why didn’t you move into town where people could help you?”
“Nelson asked the same thing. I was fearful of being alone, but I had to stand on my own two feet. Thomas paid good money for us to homestead that land. I couldn’t just leave it.”
“But you weren’t married. Was it even yours?”
She nodded. “Carl tried to tell me it wasn’t, but that was because he wanted to move in there himself. He had helped build the soddy and figured his sweat and labor made it part his. Julian DuBois, my neighbor, said the land was surely mine. As long as I stayed there for five years it would belong to me free and clear and Tommy too.”
“My son said you were stubborn.”
“It’s a fact.”
“You could have married Carl. It would have made things easier. Why didn’t you?”
Sylvia blew out a breath. “Easier. If you ever met him, you’d see right off that he’s nothing like Thomas. Carl has a mean streak. He doesn’t let it out much, so we probably could have made a life together. He can turn on the charm the same as Thomas, but it’s different. He’s got no patience. He wasn’t good with Tommy. I couldn’t see him raising my son. And more than any of that—I didn’t love Carl the way a body should that’s gonna say vows to last a lifetime.”
Something subtle changed in the woman’s expression. She coughed lightly. “At the mercantile, he did say some rather unflattering things.”
“Then you have met him. That’s his way. He got mad when I wouldn’t agree to marry him. Then he told all the folks in town that my real name was Marks and that his brother had never married me. Folks looked at me different after that. Some wouldn’t barter with me for my goods anymore. It made it real hard for me and Tommy. Adele’s husband would sometimes bring my things to trade so that folks wouldn’t know they were mine. Otherwise, I probably would have starved.”
She gazed out the window. “Ever since then, I knew the truth about myself. I wasn’t a proper lady. It didn’t matter how much I wanted to be or how careful I was around men or how I held myself apart, I couldn’t go back and change the way things had been. All I could do was make a good home for Tommy and see that he was raised the best way I knew how.”
Mrs. Graham fumbled with her handkerchief, worrying it in her lap. “Has Nelson—Has he told you about his father?”
Sylvia shook her head. “Just that he recently passed away. He said he was sick.”
“For a short while. Not long.”
Sylvia waited. It seemed Mrs. Graham was trying to gather her words. “He was a lawyer,” Sylvia said. “I know that much. And he and the doc didn’t get along all that well.”
Mrs. Graham smiled sadly. “No. They weren’t close at all.”
“I’m sorry for that. A boy should be close to his father.”
“Ellison did try at first.” She hesitated. “You love my son, don’t you?”
Sylvia met her gaze. “Completely.”
The woman took a deep breath. “I thought so. And he loves you. It is obvious in the way he looks at you, in the way he was frantic with worry when we found Tommy on the steps after the rain.” She looked down at her handkerchief again. “It has nothing to do with him being a doctor?”
“I can’t say that I can separate the man from the doc. That’s how we met.”
“I heard about that. Have you agreed to marry him?”
The question took Sylvia by surprise. She thought that remained a secret with Nelson. He’d said they wouldn’t tell anyone until she was ready.
“Don’t look so surprised. I’m not blind. Nelson acts quickly once he makes up his mind. I can see that he has made up his mind about you.”
“We talked some. I’m—” She didn’t want to tell this woman that she was afraid to marry her son. “There’s a lot to do before I can think about something like that. I need to check on my land. I need to find out how my animals are doing.”
“But you love him.”
“Yes. I don’t see how it can work out. I’m too different from him. I know that. And when a body loves someone, they want what’s best for that person.”
“A dilemma for you.”
There was a lot going on behind what Mrs. Graham was saying. Sylvia could see it in her eyes and the careful way she spoke.
“You can take the tray down now. I’m not hungry. I’ll be down soon.”
Sylvia stood.
“You’ve given me a lot to think about, Miss Marks. Thank you for being so candid.”
She gathered the tray and untouched food and took it back to the kitchen.
The meeting must be over—she no longer heard the booming voice of the mayor—yet the door remained shut. Nelson must have someone in the exam room who needed his doctoring skills.
The sun was shining and the breeze light. She gathered her sewing things and took them outside to the swing. Her thoughts had eased some with talking to Mrs. Graham. It was interesting how going over something like that could make it clearer just by talking about it. She still didn’t see answers. It was too big. Too much to think about all at once.
She could hear Tommy playing with the Blackwell boys, whooping and hollering. It did her heart good to hear him so happy.
She started to hem the sleeve on her dress.
“Heard you was here.” Carl sauntered up the walkway.
Immediately, her senses were on alert. Where was Tommy? Oh, yes—out playing with the Blackwells. She had been so engrossed in her sewing that she lost track of her surroundings. “Carl. What are you doing here?”
“Came to town for supplies.” He sat down on the swing beside her. He had let his beard grow since she last saw him. It was coming in with all kinds of corkscrew gray hairs. His shirt and overalls reeked of sweat and cattle from the stockyards.
She scooted over and tugged her material closer, hoping to keep his odor and dirt from it.
“Oh, don’t be like that, Sylvia.” He shoved off with his foot and gave the seat a big swing.
“Stop that, Carl. I’m trying to get this done.”
He let the swing come to a stop and then watched her sew for a minute. “I got a leak in my roof. Had to get some things to fix it at the hardware store.”
She came to the end of the hem, tied a knot and bit the thread with her teeth to separate it.
“You look real nice in that new dress. Doc get that for you?” He fingered the gingham material at her collar.
She scooted over again. “No. One of the women at the hotel lent it to me. My dress got ruined. This is my new one.” She concentrated on the next sleeve.
“Should have let me know. I could buy you a new dress.”
“Ha! With what? Anytime you get a couple coins, you drink it away at the Whistle Stop.”
“That ain’t true!” He watched her for a few minutes, then he looked up at the house. “What are you staying here for anyway?”
“I can’t get back across the river until the ferry is fixed.”
“You could have asked me. You know where I live.”
“That’s...kind of you. I felt poorly and the doc wanted to keep an eye on me.”
He snorted. “I just bet he did. Is your boy staying here too?”
Her eyes narrowed on him. She hadn’t forgotten his threat. “You keep away from Tommy. You hear?”
“That land, you, Tommy... You know I been looking out for you all these years. I was never real close ’cause you been touchy about it, but I’ve always been willing to help.”
“I know.” But there were always strings attached to his kind of help.
He gripped he
r arm and held it up so she would have to look at him. “You don’t belong here, Sylvia. Don’t let yourself forget that. You’re not like them.”
She squirmed, trying to wrench from his strong hold. “Carl, you’re crowding me! I can’t sew this if you don’t give me some room.”
“Hello, Mr. Caulder.”
Carl stood up immediately at Nelson’s voice. “Doc,” he said, acknowledging him. He stepped away from the swing and her.
“Are you ill? In need of my services?”
“No. Just came to check on Sylvia. Had to know she was doing all right, what with the flooding and all.” Carl rubbed his hands on his thighs.
“Last time I saw you two together I didn’t realize you were friends.”
“She’s like my kid sister. I tease her a lot is all.”
“I have seen the evidence of your teasing. Bruises you left as presents.”
Carl narrowed his eyes. “I don’t know what you saw, Doc, but I never hurt Sylvia.”
“Hmph. I’m glad to hear that.” Nelson walked over to her to offer his hand. “You’ll have to excuse us now. Sylvia promised me a walk this afternoon and at the moment I am free.”
Carl’s brows shot up. He laughed once—a sarcastic-sounding laugh. “Well, that’ll be a sight.”
Nelson ignored him. “Ready?” he asked her.
Without hesitation, she took his hand and rose to her feet, then put down her sewing on the swing. She was relieved that he had suggested a walk. Her first thought on seeing Carl had been to check on Tommy.
Nelson tucked her hand into the crook of his arm.
“Sylvia.” The dark warning in Carl’s voice was unmistakable. He hooked one thumb in his overall strap. “When the ferry starts up again, I’ll come for you. Don’t you forget what I said before, ’cause I won’t.”
Footsteps sounded on the porch. Sylvia looked up to see Mrs. Graham standing there.
“We’ll be back in a few minutes, Mother.”
She nodded.
Carl glanced at Mrs. Graham, then at Sylvia and Nelson, and then turning away, he strode angrily toward the main street of town.
Nelson took her in the opposite direction. “What did Carl mean by that last remark?”
The Prairie Doctor's Bride Page 20
